Barnia Archipelago
The land known as the Barnia Archipelago lies far to the north. The country is made up of islands that contain tundras, plains and scattered forests. It is a country of a bardic majority where even the smallest of towns typically has at least one bard living there. Most bards in Barnia are also Psions. Concerts, plays and storytelling's are performed very often and one can not enter a town or city without hearing instruments and voices creating and perfecting music. Towns and cities are few and far between in this land and there is no one central government that rules the country. Each town or city is ruled over by a council of between three and seven members and when a decision that impacts the entire country must be made each council will send an emissary to the city of Sforzando, the largest and grandest of all of the cities, to form a temporary Grand Council to manage the country's affairs. Other than these rare occasions though, the towns and cities are left to their own devices and typically resolve any disputes between themselves peacefully. Social Organization The people of the Barnia Archipelago have a social hierarchy that is based solely on profession. Each tier comes with its own benefits and downsides. Farmers and fishermen are at the bottom of the order and are looked down upon by most all other members of society. However, because they supply the country with food, they are among the most well fed as they are allowed to keep whatever portion of food they grow or catch before selling it at the market. On the next level of the social order are the artisans. These people create all manner of craft, be it clothing, artwork, instruments or tools. While they may not make as much money as a merchant or have as much food as a farmer or fisherman, the artisans are among the happiest of all of the inhabitants of the Barnia Archipelago because they genuinely love their craft. Next are the merchants. The merchants do not sell their own wares, instead selling goods provided to them by the farmers and craftsman and keeping a sizable portion of the profits before giving the rest of the money to whomever gave them the goods to sell. Thus merchants are usually among the wealthiest citizens although if they are ruined by competition, they have no skills to fall back on and are typically ruined for life. Above them are officials of the local governments. Running the regions of the country provides these people with immense power but proves to be too stressful for many of them to handle. Bards in the Archipelago have a society all their own. Rumor: There's is a King of Barnia and he's a dragon. But that's probably an old bard's tale. Bards in the Barnia Archipelago Bards stand apart from the rest of society in that they can travel to any part of the country and still be welcomed as if they lived there. In normal society bards are universally respected and treated well, typically managing to get free food and board at an inn with just one performance because of the business it will generate for the inn. Bardic society in Barnia, however, is one of competitiveness where a bard will often challenge another to a musical competition for passage through the town they live in. If the bard native to the town wins the duel, the traveling bard has two days to spend in the town before he must leave and travel to another one. If the traveling bard wins, he may stay as long as he wishes and will not be challenged again if he comes back. How many performances a bard has made is the largest factor as to how well they are respected in the bardic community. A bard who has only performed a a dozen times or so is generally seen as a novice and is not nearly as well respected as one that has made hundreds of performances. It is also not usually possible for a bard to lie to another one as most cast the spell Ear for Truth before speaking to each other. This became a tradition after the most well known bard on the archipelago was revealed to have been a fraud and only performed twenty times after claiming over ten thousand performances. The Arpegiatto Academy Within the city of Sforzando lies the greatest Bardic college ever created, the Arpegiatto Academy. Entry into the college is extremely difficult as one must obtain an endorsement from a bard that has made three hundred performances to be considered worthy for entry. Once accepted, classes consist of learning musical instruments, vocal lessons and listening to the greatest tales and sagas of Orelisle. Many bards also choose to learn magic from the Mind school of magic. One poor performance is enough to be expelled from the college and when a student is expelled, the bard that endorsed them is also viewed as a failure and will often leave the country to avoid their shame. The Arpegiatto Academy is located at the center of Sforzando and is considered to be the pride of the city. The Academy is also one of the largest buildings in the city, easily visible from nearly any part of it. It is heavily guarded against non-bards that have not been invited by the leaders of the college. Any bard with over three hundred performances under their belt is allowed to access the college. The Academy is one of the largest repositories in all of Orelisle for epics, sagas and poems. Anyone looking into a particular legend would be sure to find what they need at the Academy, assuming they are allowed in. Traveling TroupesCategory:Places Many of the troupes of performers roaming Orelisle have origins in the Barnia Archipelago. These groups are formed for a variety of reasons, whether it is a group of friends that have grown tired of living in the Barnia Archipelago and want to see the world, or a group of professional bards that want to spread their names far and wide.